Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Matthew 18:11 - 18:11
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Mat_18:11 f. Omitting Mat_18:11, which is not genuine (see critical notes), we come to the parable Mat_18:12-14, which is intended to show that it would be in direct opposition to God’s desire for human salvation to lead astray one of those μικροί , and to cause him to be lost, like a strayed sheep. Luk_15:4 ff. records the same beautiful parable, though in a different connection, and with much tenderer, truer, and more original features. But the time-hallowed parable of the shepherd came so naturally to Jesus, that there is no reason why He should not have employed it more than once, in a shorter or more detailed form, according as it happened to be appropriate to the occasion.
τί ὑμῖν δοκεῖ ] “suavis communicatio,” Bengel.
ἐὰν γένηται , κ . τ . λ .] if a hundred sheep have fallen to a man’s lot, if he has come into the possession of them (Kühner, II. 1, p. 364). The contrast to ἕν requires that we should conceive of ἑκατόν as a large number (not as a small flock, Luk_12:32). Comp. Lightfoot.
It is preferable to connect ἐπὶ τὰ ὄρη with ἀφείς (Vulgate, Luther), because the connecting of it with πορευθείς (Stephanus, Beza, Casaubon, Er. Schmid, Bengel) would impart an unmeaning emphasis to ἐπὶ τὰ ὄρη . The man is pasturing his sheep upon the hills, observes that one of them is amissing, therefore meanwhile leaves the flock alone upon the hills (for the one that has strayed demands immediate attention), and, going away, searches for the one sheep that is lost. The reading of Lachmann represents the right connection.
ἐπὶ τὰ ὄρη ] ἐπί is not merely upon (as answering the question: where?), but expresses the idea of being scattered over the surface of anything, which corresponds exactly with what is seen in the case of a flock when it is grazing, and which is likewise in keeping with ἀφείς , which conveys the idea of being let out, let loose. Comp. notes on Mat_13:2, Mat_14:19, Mat_15:35.
ἐὰν γένηται εὑρεῖν αὐτό ] if it should happen that he finds it. Comp. Hesiod, Theog. 639; in classical Greek, found mostly with, though also without, a dative. Xen. Mem. i. 9. 13; Cyr. vi. 3. 11; Plato, Rep. p. 397 B; Kühner, II. 2, p. 582. This expression is unfavourable to the notion of irresistible grace.
χαίρει , κ . τ . λ .] This picture, so psychologically true, of the first impression is not applied to God in Mat_18:14 (otherwise in Luk_15:7), although, from the popular anthropopathic point of view, it might have been so. Luke’s version of the parable is characterized by greater freshness.